


Run

by AgentGreyNevada



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Escape, F/M, On the Run, Project Freelancer, Running, UNSC, chorus, forest, freelancer base
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23550874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentGreyNevada/pseuds/AgentGreyNevada
Summary: She had to.
Kudos: 2





	Run

I knew I had to keep running. 

Even after the sun had gone down. Even after I was 3 miles ahead. I had to. I couldn't let them capture me. 

This went on for days. Thankfully my armor allowed me to last that long and it didn't give. My AI, however, had to shut down temporarily. As much as I relied on Sean to keep me mentally sane, his wires were fraying. He needed repairs done, but I didn't have the tools on me required for the detailed work that he needed. 

There was an old uncharted Freelancer base in the north - about 20 klicks away - that I could hide and fortify. Granted, it was probably in much disrepair, but nothing a trained agent couldn't fix in a couple of days. Providing they didn't get to me first. 

The forest was rather bountiful in substantial food and water that I was able to survive without turning to my suit's resources. Unfortunately, if I were to kill a larger animal like a deer, I would have to quickly harvest the meat and flee before my assailants caught up to me. It was an intense game of cat and mouse. 

_"This is Felix, broadcasting on an open channel. Anyone out there?"_ I heard one night over Comms. I was rather confused - this was _dense_ jungle, no cities for miles around. I assumed it was my chasers. 

"What the fuck do you want." I grumbled, angrily tearing apart cooked dear meat with my teeth. 

_"Hey easy there sugar. We don't want to hurt you."_

"Damn right. Tell me that next time you shoot at me." I turned off Comms and went back to my dinner of veal and wild berries. I hoped this wouldn't last much longer.

* * *

A few days later, I found an abandoned log cabin on my trek north to the Freelancer base. It was by a lake, incredibly peaceful little treasure in these thick forests. I found myself pondering on why it was there. I hid there for a day - it provided me enough cover to lay low and not make too much of a scene. I had ransacked it, but not to my surprise didn't find anything of use besides some fraying toilet paper and an old mattress. I was happy to not sleep on a hard dirt ground for one night. 

The next morning however, the trouble started up again. 

A shot was fired - not by me. By my chaser. 

"Agent Grey Nevada, come out and discuss terms with us." A man with a rather deep and heavy voice spoke to me on an open channel. The shot was from a sniper - every freelancer knew the distinct sound of one when shot. 

"Why would I? You have your orders." I replied harshly, quickly gathering my materials so I can make a run for it. I was hoping he would fire again so I could pinpoint his hiding location and not run in that direction. 

"...we want to discuss terms." The man took a minute to respond, most likely pondering what he _could_ say to a freelancer that could entice them and he ended up repeating himself. 

"Fuck you." I spoke bitterly as I prepared my DMR to shoot. I shot a few rounds in different directions before spotting a soldier hiding behind a hill and tree for cover. I shot, hearing the deep voiced man grunt over Comms. I was aiming for the head, but I got his shoulder. At this point, it was close enough. 

I bolted north, being aware of how much dirt I was kicking up as a means for them to track me as I followed the vague path and HUD to the Freelancer base. 5 more klicks. If I was lucky, I would be there by sundown tomorrow.

* * *

This was when shit went downhill. 

A cold front was coming in, causing the winds to pick up and snow was on the horizon. They would be able to track me easier, so I had to hurry. 

I was about less than a klick from the base when some life form appeared on my HUD. It was approaching slowly from the side, but I couldn't see anything, even with my high tech scope on my helmet. I kept trekking along, the snow starting to fall as I went further north, pre-existing snow starting to cover the landscape. I stopped to admire a half frozen lake, the human part of me loving nature and wished I could sit and daydream next to it. This was a mistake. 

A shot was heard and I keeled over on my knees, my leg on fire. "FUCK!" I grunted, teeth biting into my bottom lip. My bio scan indicated that I had taken a bullet - from a sniper - to the thigh. My healing unit started working its magic to stop the bleeding and cover the wound but it still hurt like a _bitch._

"Nevada, come on now." A voice spoke. It was rather snarky as it approached from behind. I was able to turn around to finally face who it was. It was a soldier, clad in gray armor with orange highlights and dawned a scout helmet. "We _really_ didn't want to shoot you but...you forced my partner's hand." 

"You fucker." As much as I wanted to tackle that orange punk ass dude, I knew that's probably what they wanted. They wanted me weak so they can haul me off without much struggle. I pulled my DMR and shot a couple bullets, but Orange Aid pulled out a blue light shield from his arm. I stood in shock, not expecting him to have armor enhancements. _He can't be from Freelancer, I've never seen him before..._

I made a quick decision to throw a grenade at an overhanging tree branch and bolting for it, my healing unit numbing the pain in my leg so I could run. The explosion masked the sound of my feet as the branch fell on top of Orange Guy. I heard him shout as I activated my camouflage enhancement until I was a half mile away from their location. And that's when I reached it. 

The snow and wind was starting to batter down on me as my suit warned me of 20% life left in armor upgrades. Thankfully, the old Freelancer outpost was 500 feet in front of me by a cliff's edge. I trudged to it, the healing effects slowly wearing off as the pain returned to my leg, causing me to limp the rest of the way to the base. The base was disheveled as expected for being unattended in years, the clearing it was in making it appear more lonesome than it must've been. Wind tried to knock me over but I stood strong as I made it to the alcove of the entrance, squeezing my body through the small gap between the partially opened door and the wall. Once inside, the wind was no longer in my ears and it was slightly warmer. 

I flicked on my exterior helmet lights as I began mapping the station, pulling up old blueprints stored on my HUD's internal systems. I would admit, it was creepy being in a dark, rusted, abandoned facility, but it was my last line of defense. Before rounding a corner, I found a random oil drum to press against the outside door to prevent my chasers from following me inside. It wasn't much of a barricade but if anything, it would slow them down. 

An hour later and I had made the brig my home. The large windows had a view of the cliff and valley below and multiple hiding holes. I had served up some MREs for dinner and had pried myself out of my suit and did my best to clean myself despite having no running water. I rested on the floor, feeling rather weak. I haven't allowed myself to actually rest since I escaped Freelancer. 

_'A-Agent Nevada,'_ my AI croaked out as a fuzzy hologram appeared next to me. 

"Sean, no, don't do this." I begged him as I re-positioned my leg. The bullet was lodged into my thigh, there was no way I could get it out with the minimal tools I found. I would need medical attention soon. I hissed in pain. 

_'I-I am a-aware,'_ his form stuttered from the fraying in the wires. His connection was weak. _'P-Please provide a mentality u-update.'_

I sat on the floor, my head against a console, my gaze up the ceiling. Sean often gave me these mental health checkups on a regular basis, but since his circuits were shredding, I ordered him to cease them. "I..." The wind howled outside. I shuddered. "I'm not good. I-I can't keep running. I hate the Project but I can't...." My head dropped slightly. "Fuck....I need medical attention. But I don't want to go back there. You understand, right?" 

_'I-I do, Agent. You felt as if you were a lab rat, like everyone else. You wanted to save them all before they all wound up permanently scarred.'_ Sean spoke my inner truth, the thoughts I had in my head for months prior to my escape. _'You a-are very brave, Agent. And u-unfortunately, y-you have company-'_ It was all he could say before his image flickered away and I heard a commotion down the hall. 

I held my magnum in my hand as I tried to stand, but it was no use. My leg wouldn't let me. My body was screaming at me to rest. To give up. I sulked, dropping my gun to my side as the pain was simply too much. Without my suit and healing unit, I couldn't put up much of a fight while in this condition. 

A white light washed over me, coming from the entrance of the brig. I winced to the light, blocking it with my empty hands. 

"Agent Nevada, you're quite an elusive one." I recognized the voice. It was the guy who sniped at me in the cabin. Velvet Boy. 

"Fuck you," I grumbled, trying to keep the light out of my eyes. After a couple of seconds, the light went down to the ground. I blinked to adjust my eyes and two soldiers stood before me - Velvet Boy and Orange Aid. The guy in orange armor shook his head. 

"Gonna curse us out before hearing our offer? You got some balls, Nevada." He snickered, his voice criminally smooth. "We don't want to hurt you." 

"Y-You already have!" I yelled in response, gesturing to my busted leg. Orange Aid looked to his partner. 

"Whatever, doesn't matter now..." Orange Man grumbled before kneeling four feet in front of me. He placed down his DMR along with the flashlight he was using. Lastly he removed his helmet, his greasy hair falling into his face before he brushed it to the side with a gloved hand. I was rather confused on what was happening. "Do you know who he worked for?" I recognized his voice also, but I couldn't recall where. 

"Project Freelancer, you were sent to retrieve me and bring me back to the Director." I spoke with bitterness in my tone, my eyes darting in between both soldiers. Orange Aid chuckled, his head dropping to his chest plate. 

"...oh how so far from wrong you are. We're mercenaries." 

"So....you were sent to kill me?" I couldn't understand where he was going with this. 

He snorted. "No, our employer wants you." He tapped some things into his TAC pad. "Your current bounty is 20 million credits. And for how long we've been hired guns, I've never seen a bounty so high. Neither has our employer." 

"Your skills are outmatched." Velvet Boy spoke. "He wants you to work with him and beside us." 

"....wait...so...you're not with Project Freelancer?" 

Orange Man scoffed. "Pfft no, we work for Charon." He ran a gloved hand through his hair once more. "Pays well and we get to work when we want." 

My eyes darted between both of them. "So...y-you want me to...?" 

"Come with us. We know you have a bounty on your head, we can make it disappear. You'll just have to work with us." Velvet Boy affirmed. 

I felt my heart leap out of my chest. I tried to get up and hug the man closest to me but my leg gave out. "Fuck..." I grunted. 

"Well, this storm is gonna be here for a bit. We might as well hunker down and wait it out." Velvet Boy removed his helmet to show olive colored skin and long black hair tied back in a bun. "And don't worry, I can get the bullet out." He wandered away, leaving me with the dude in orange. 

"So, what do you say, Nev?" He asked me, giving a hand in sitting back up. 

"I....y-yes please." I tried not to sound incredibly timid as he gave me a cheeky grin. 

"Good. The name's Felix by the way." It instantly hit where I knew him. He was the voice over the radio days ago. 

"...the man from..." He nodded, already knowing what I was going to say. 

"Yeah, we wanted to make contact before you ran too far but...shit happens." Felix shrugged with a smile on his face. "Glad to have you on our team." 

I smiled in return, a genuine smile. "I'm glad too." 


End file.
